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Pope Francis: The most difficult charity (or fasting) is to bend over and hug a wounded
person

07/03/2014

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(Vatican Radio) Are we ashamed to touch the flesh of our wounded or suffering brothers
and sisters? This was one of the key questions posed by Pope Francis during his
homily at the morning Mass on Friday at the Santa Marta residence. The Pope stressed
that our life of faith is closely linked to a life of charity and Christians who do
not practice the latter are hypocrites.

Listen to this report by Susy Hodges:

Pope Francis used his homily to reflect on the essential role of charity
in the life of every Christian. He said Christianity is not a repository of formal
observances for people who put on a hypocritical good appearance to conceal their
hearts empty of any charity. Christianity is showing the flesh of Jesus who bends
down without shame in front of whoever is suffering. This contrasts with the Pharisees
who criticized Jesus and the disciples for not practicing the commandment to fast
and who as Doctors of the Law transformed the observance of these commandments into
a formality and transformed religious life into an ethic.

“Receiving from
our Lord the love of a Father, receiving from our Lord the identity of a people and
then transforming it into an ethic means we are refusing that gift of love. These
hypocritical people are good persons. They do all they should do. They seem good.
But they are ethicists without goodness because they have lost the sense of belonging
to a people! Our Lord gives us salvation through belonging to a people.”

But
as the Pope went on to remind, true charity or fasting means breaking the chains of
evil, freeing the oppressed, sharing our bread with the hungry, opening our houses
to the homeless and clothing the naked.

“This is the charity or fasting
that our Lord wants! Charity that is concerned about the life of our brother, that
is not ashamed – Isaiah said it himself – of the flesh of our brother. Our perfection,
our holiness is linked with our people where we are chosen and become part. Our greatest
act of holiness relates to the flesh of our brother and the flesh of Jesus Christ.
Our act of holiness today, here at the altar is not a hypocritical fasting: instead
it means not being ashamed of the flesh of Christ which comes here today! This is
the mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ. It means sharing our bread with the
hungry, taking care of the sick, the elderly, those who can’t give us anything in
return: this is not being ashamed of the flesh!”

He said the most difficult
charity (or fasting) is the charity of goodness such as that practiced by the Good
Samaritan who bent over the wounded man unlike the priest who hurried past, maybe
out of fear of becoming infected. And this is the question posed by the Church today:
“Am I ashamed of the flesh of my brother and sister”

“When I give alms,
do I drop the coin without touching the hand (of the poor person, beggar)? And if
by chance I do touch it, do I immediately withdraw it? When I give alms, do I look
into the eyes of my brother, my sister? When I know a person is ill, do I go and
visit that person? Do I greet him or her with affection? There’s a sign that possibly
may help us, it’s a question: Am I capable of giving a caress or a hug to the sick,
the elderly, the children, or have I lost sight of the meaning of a caress? These
hypocrites were unable to give a caress. They had forgotten how to do it….. Don’t
be ashamed of the flesh of our brother, it’s our flesh! We will be judged by the
way we behave towards this brother, this sister.”